Our fundraising drive is up and running! Together we can open the library.

After five years of campaigning we have secured two thirds of the ground floor to operate a community library and public space. We need your support to transform this empty shell into a library that the community can be proud of and which they deserve after fighting for so long.

Local actors come together again to create a star studded cast performing Shakespeare readings. This popular event will take place on Sunday 24th April at Queens Park Community School. Buying a ticket will be essential and are available for £10 from C&D Food and Wine and Daniels Estate Agents.

After five years of campaigning and dedicated support from the community we have a rent free space on the ground floor of the library, and we plan to open in autumn 2016. Please join us at our launch weekend to mark the start of our fundraising appeal.

Come and join us on World Book Day and Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary for the unveiling of the Shelf-O-Meter created by Brent Artists’ Resource, www.brentartistsresource.org.uk, which will fill up with books as donations are made.

mydonate.bt.com/events/kensalriselibraryappeal

from 23rd April

As spring arrives, these are interesting and busy times for the campaign.

The objective of re-opening our library is now in sight, but, and it’s a big but, there’s a financial hill to climb.

We will be able to take possession of our space in the building in the next month or two.

We will then have a rent-free space covering two-thirds of the ground floor – most of the area the old library had. But we will need to fit it out and furnish it to turn it into a working library and a public space.

Our priority is to raise the money to do that. We’re applying to trusts and foundations for funding, and we will continue to hold fundraising events. We are also hoping to launch a fundraising drive – calling in the pledges that were made when we first appealed for funds to run the library and also appealing for help from our supporters everywhere.

In the meantime we have had, and, will have, some great fundraising events.

The Actors’ Evening at the Paradise in Febrary was a wonderful night of poetry, literature and laughs which raised over £2000. Actors such as Tamsin Greig, Patterson Joseph, Haydyn Gwynne and others performed and we truly appreciate their support.

On 12th March the Brent Symphony Orchestra gave a concert in aid of the Friends of Kensal Rise Library. It was a wonderful evening with a terrific programme and we are so lucky that the orchestra has made its home in Kensal Rise at St Martin’s Church. We hope to have many more events to share at St Martin’s and inside the library when it opens.

The Actor’s Evening at QPCS. 24th April 2016. Once again the actors who performed at the Actor’s Evening at the Paradise will be returning and giving of their time and talent – this time an evening of Shakespeare.

Art Exhibition and Auction: date to be confirmed, as we may be holding this event in the library. We have had a Peter Blake print donated and we will have the support of local Brent artists.

In November our third Annual Mark Twain Lecture will be given by author Ali Smith, author of, amongst other books, Public Libraries and Other Stories and winner of both the Bailey’s Prize (2015) and the Goldsmith Prize (2014). Ali Smith is a great defender of libraries and her talk promises to be very interesting.

Our library should be a force for good……

Yes, a shared public space with books, free WiFi and computers, classes, events etc is a beautiful thing but we also want the amazing asset we have there to be a broader force for good in Kensal Rise.

That means using it to help those in our area who have the most acute needs – whether teens, single parents, migrants, refugees, people with disabilities or the elderly. We already have partnerships in place with several local groups who tackle those needs but we would love to hear from more, so if you think the library space may be a good resource for work that you do – please get in touch.

At a meeting of the Trustees of the Friends of Kensal Rise library in December a representative from Uplift Properties – the company that is developing the library building – reported that the development is on track and the scaffolding may be ready to come down in February and the Friends may be able to have access to the building from the end of March. Very exciting!

We have a lot to do, not only with organising how the library is to be run but also with the fitting out of the library space. The space that we will have will be left in a ‘shell and core’ condition when the building works are complete. This means we will be responsible for getting the building from this basic condition to one which is ready for use as a library and public space. We will be asking our supporters for help with this as well as applying to trusts and charities for funds to make the work achievable.

Working together we can achieve this.

The next meeting of the Volunteer Committees is on Thursday 7 January in the Long Room, St Martin’s Church, Mortimer Rd, Kensal Green. 7.30pm – 8.45pm. Please come along and help create a great library, run for the community by the community.

We need as many local people as possible to help secure funds for the library and get it ready to re-open in 2016.

YOU have skills we need. We have fought long and hard to save our library and as a result we have a great space on the ground floor of the building, rent-free.

When it re-opens, the service will be run by volunteers as a lending library with free internet access.

But it will be more than a space with books and computers ……

We plan to run classes and workshops and activities and projects that meet the needs and interests of all in the community.

We want to make the library a force for good. Our campaign has shown what we believe to be important and what we have spent five years fighting for – a library and public space at the heart of our community

To do that we need people who can lend a hand with fundraising, communications, and the practicalities of how the library will operate. No experience necessary: enthusiasm and a small amount of time are all we need…

We look forward to working together and thank you for your continued support.

The London Borough of Brent announced Margaret Bailey, Chair of the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, as one of its 2015 Community Champions at its awards ceremony on 4th November at the Civic Centre in Wembley .

The Brent Community Champions Awards are held annually by Brent Council to honour and recognise individuals who have given outstanding community and voluntary service in Brent. For the last five years, Margaret Bailey has led the campaign to save the library service in Kensal Rise. In a fight that has drawn local residents together in defense of a beloved institution, Ms. Bailey has been a tireless champion of community values. Since then FKRL has fought to restore the library service under the building’s subsequent owners. Campaigners, led by Ms. Bailey, have now secured a guaranteed space on the ground floor for a volunteer-run library. That space will be rent-free in perpetuity, while the rest of the building will be converted into residential units. Margaret Bailey, Chair of the Friends of Kensal Rise Library commented: “I’m delighted by this award but it should really go to everybody in Kensal Rise and beyond who has worked over the last five years to save our precious library. Above all, we now need to raise the funds to make our new community library viable, so I appeal to businesses, donors and trusts to help us secure our future…”